The board of supervisors will vote before July 1 to approve all door boarding on Muni’s buses. Riders will have to tag Clipper when boarding the rear of the bus, provide proof of payment, or suffer a $100 citation. As part of the plan, 10 more fare inspectors will be hired, costing the agency $700k. The upside is big, however, since all door boarding could boost service speed by 1 mph, a savings of $76m a year.

In SFGate’ open forum, SF Supervisor Scott Wiener says that Muni simply can’t afford to shell out $8M for free rides for all youth’s when the SFMTA doesn’t even have the funding to provide essential operations and maintenance. Supervisor Wiener says that Muni needs to focus on having a more reliable system first, and that “Every time the system melts down because a switch fails, a vehicle door won’t close, stairs won’t rise, or a derailment occurs, you can be assured that the problem results from Muni not having the funds to maintain its infrastructure properly.”

Starting July 1, Muni will legalize all door boarding on buses. Thanks to Clipper, all door boarding will be a practical solution and reduce boarding times further. A 1 mph increase in Muni’s operating speed could save the SFMTA $76m a year.

The new proposed youth pass would be $5, offered free for qualified low income youth, and free for all youth. Supervisor David Campos is proposing the measure, which would cost $8m a year with a 2 or 3 year pilot program. Maylor Lee supports the proposal as long as the funding source is stable and does not impact the SFMTA’s budget.

The proposed budget also does not include any additional security cost. As noted in the article, “Campos said what’s still to be determined is whether participants could be kicked out of the program if they misbehave on the city’s buses and trains.” As all commuters know, this is a real issue and SFMTA should not approve any free-rides program without a plan to address it.